In a supporting role, Epps will play Pryor, who opened for the singer when they two were starting out in the early 1960s. Pryor had terrible stage fright and Simone, in her autobiography, recalled how she regularly rocked him into calmness.

Epps is coming off a lead role in Sparkle, Screen Gems’ musical that proved to be Whitney Houston’s last movie, and recently wrapped a gig in Warners’ tentpole comedy The Hangover Part III. He has the thriller Vipaka, with Forest Whitaker and Anthony Mackie, in the can.